


Fish are Friends, Not Food.

by KingJulienne



Series: Certain Things You Don't Do With Swimmers [6]
Category: Free!
Genre: Aggressive Eating???, Chaos, Finding Nemo references, Free! - Freeform, Gen, Humor, Makoto is the mom friend, Someone help Rin, Sousuke is the dad friend, finding nemo - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-05-24 11:40:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14954006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KingJulienne/pseuds/KingJulienne
Summary: The gang wants to try a new restaurant that popped up in their little town, but there's a problem with the menu, and Rin has to remember his meetings.





	Fish are Friends, Not Food.

It was a nice restaurant, with plenty of tables and a huge window wall giving light to the entire eating area. Rin, Kou, Makoto, and Haru decided to grab some lunch together. They were in the area and had never been to this restaurant before. A little exploration couldn’t harm anyone, now could it?

Well.

Within ten minutes of sitting, they were given the opportunity to order their drinks. By the time their drinks arrived, they decided to order food, too. Rin was quite skeptical of a few things on the menu; some things, you just didn’t try to eat, even if you were entertaining a different palette.

Since it was good to spoil himself every once in a while, Rin decided to order a fish dish that sounded like it’d just be a little bit of fish and left it at that.

While Makoto and Haru left to procure a restroom, the waiters came with their food. Kou’s soup looked good, and Haru’s mackerel fillet with pineapple at least looked appetizing; whatever Makoto ordered hadn’t shown up yet. And then the plate was set in front of him. Rin’s breath hitched.

He had to remember his meetings.

They’d been a long time ago, but scrounging through his past for that one, faithful day where he learned the most important message of his life had to come to the surface.

“Wow, that’s…” Kou said. Rin looked at her, and she too looked at least a little surprised that it wasn’t a fillet, like they figured. She laughed a little. “That’s quite different.”

Rin struggled, but he looked back down at his plate, sweat leaking down his temple. The meal was a  _whole_  fish, with what Rin could guess were seasonings and a coffin of vegetables and sprigs of cooked rosemary laying across its crisped skin, jabbing into it, like thorns; the lemon slice was stuck just under the fish’s eye, like it hadn’t cried enough tears when they  _threw it into the oven_ but now had to suffer the unholy burn of that sour, yellow citrus.

He didn’t want a whole fish. A whole fish felt like all he’d been through was a lie; he felt betrayed, not only by this restaurant, but by himself.

Panic welled up in him like a child winding up to cry. This was  _not_ okay.

“Fish…” He whispered, clenching his fists on the table, his face tight with anguish. Kou looked up from her bowl and blinked.

“Nii-san, is something the matter?” she asked. There was about three things that were the matter—his chair was too hard, his water was too salty, and there was a  _whole_ fish on the table, and she couldn’t see the problem—but Rin could only focus on the glaring issue in front of him. The wrong he’d committed against himself. “What’s wrong?”

Rin looked at his plate, and then at her. What was  _wrong?_ How did she not  _know?_

“Fish…” Rin started, his brow furrowing. This wasn’t spoiling himself; if he ate this, he’d fall back to the horrible lifestyle he just came from. “Fish are  _friends,_ Kou!” He told her, leaning over his fists.

Rin saw it, a flash of confusion in her eyes, and he saw it as it switched to concern. He raised his head in a moment of victory—Did she get it?  _Did she get it?_

“Fish are…” Kou looked to his plate, then back at her brother. “Friends?” The confusion was back—no, no, she didn’t remember. She didn’t  _understand._

“Fish are  _friends,”_ Rin hissed, the corners of his vision stinging. He started to tweak as the intoxicating, alluring smell of the fish reached him.  _Eat me,_ it whispered. Pushing away from the table, Rin ignored it. “N-Not  _food.”_

For heaven’s sake, at least  _three_ of their friends acted like fish. Haru with his dolphin business, Makoto having the potential to lay himself out like a  _beached_ whale—they grew up with Sousuke, the grumpy whale shark with no fangs.

Admittedly, Rin forgot that for a while; when he was angrier, he lost his way and went down a dangerous path where he  _destroyed_ fish, but he returned to himself, reformed, changed, knowing that it was okay to slip up once in a while, but  _only_ in controlled bits.

Not a whole goddamned fish.

Kou, she watched the same movie. She  _saw_ how those sharks dismissed their vows for the sake of their addictions, and how they ended up.

“Oh,” Kou said, leaning back in her seat. “But…Nii-san, that was just…”

“It was  _not_ just a movie!” Rin yelled, his voice cracking. “Fish are  _friends!_ Not food!”

“Nii-san, please-” Kou said, as other diners started to look their way. Haru and Makoto were coming back from the bathroom, but Rin knew where he had to go. He had to leave. He had to leave before he made even more of a scene and  _consumed every fish in this restaurant._

_That wouldn’t be so bad, would it?_ The fish he’d ordered kept calling to him.

“The worst,“ Rin told it. “It’d be the  _worst!”_ He refused to fall victim to this wily temptress.

“Rin?” Makoto asked. “What’s wrong-”

“Fish are friends, not food!” Rin yelled, hoping at least one of them would understand. Haru narrowed his eyes. If you didn’t know him, you couldn’t tell, but Rin had spent enough time glaring at him to know.

“Fish is delicious,” Haru said. “What are you talking about?”

Rin gasped. He staggered back, his hand over his heart. Haru, how could he? One of his  _best_ friends, of all people!

“They are  _friends!”_ Rin shrieked, turning around, rushing out of this hell hole of a restaurant before he was betrayed any further, before he lost himself  _again_. “Friends!” he yelled back at Kou, Haru, and Makoto. Rin rushed back into the doorway, just to holler,  _“Friends!”_

“Like the show?” he heard someone ask. He didn’t give them an answer.

Kou and Makoto called after him, but he didn’t listen. Haru shouted for him as well, but Rin learned a long time ago never to listen to Haru.

Rin didn’t talk to any of them for at  _least_ thirty seconds. Because about five of those seconds after he left, he stormed back in again.

“Rin!” Makoto said, rising from his seat. “Rin, we’re-”

“Where is it?” Rin asked. He looked at the table—and there, there it was.

“We were going to send it back, Nii-san,” Gou said. Rin didn’t answer her. He picked up the fish in both hands. “N-Nii-san, wait!”

He sunk his teeth into it, tore a hunk off.  _And it was damn good._

He made the most unholy noises as he crouched by the table, ripping into the fish with his teeth, chewing and crunching—oh god, it was good, it was so, so, so good—growling when a bit flew away from him and snatched it up, tossing it back to be swallowed, too.

There was no escape for this fish.

“Rin!” Makoto screamed. “Rin, I thought fish were friends-”

“Fuck that noise!” Rin barked, shooting up to his feet. He was shaking now, the fish completely gone. He wiped his mouth on his sleeve—he could still taste it. He needed  _more._ “Fish is delicious!”

“Told you,” Haru said. Rin ignored him as he dashed into the kitchen, where he could just  _smell_ all the fish coagulating, waiting to be devoured.

_By me,_ he thought, hungrily. Rin had to get more; he had to eat more fish.

“Get out of the way!” Rin yelled as he shoved the bakers away from the oven. He peered inside; there was no fish in there!

He rose, scouring the kitchen for the fish as the cooks tried to convince him to leave. He found them, stacked up high. Prepped to go in or no, they were all going to get baked, and then find a  _one way trip_ to Rin’s stomach.

He threw the whack muffins out of the oven and piled the tray with the fish. Familiar and unfamiliar voices—“Rin!" "Sir!" "Rin, get a  _hold_ of yourself!" "We have to call Sousuke!”—Rin ignored them. He had to get some fucking fish.

“Yes, mm, yes,” Rin hummed, throwing some seasonings on, throwing the fish into the oven. He crouched on the floor, rocking back and forth sniffing his hands as he watched the fishies cook. “Fish, mine, gonna eat you. All up. Yes.  _Yes.”_

While the fish cooked and Rin licked at his fingers—god, Fish was so good—and he refused to let anyone near him, Rin heard a grumpy voice enter the kitchen.

“God, where is he?” Sousuke, it sounded like.

“Over here,” Makoto sighed. “He won’t let anyone touch him. He’s bitten three chefs and we’ve just barely managed to convince them not to call the cops.”

Sousuke grumbled a few swears. “Weren’t you watching him?”

“Are you doing this?  _Really?_  In front of them?” Makoto said. “I was here to watch him, wasn’t I?”

“Who brought him to a fish restaurant?” Sousuke asked, in turn. Makoto sounded affronted, but Rin wasn’t paying enough attention to know.

“I’m so sick of this, Sousuke. It’s not my fault he’s like this. If I had some  _help_  around here-”

“Alright, alright,” Sousuke said, backing off. “I’m sorry. I know he’s difficult. We’ll do this together, alright?”

“That’s what I wanted,” Makoto said with a sniff.

Rin was starting to get frustrated; this fish was taking so  _long._ And now that Sousuke was here, his party would definitely get pooped on. 

“Rin,” Makoto tried in a motherly tone of voice as he touched Rin's shoulder. Rin whipped around, glaring at Makoto, seeing Sousuke standing over him with his arms crossed, his gaze disapproving and disappointed. Makoto was stern, but kind, so Rin’s eyes were on him. “Rin, it's okay. You're not in trouble.”

Sousuke snorted. “Don’t baby him Makoto,” Sousuke said. He glared at Rin. “This is why we can’t have nice things-”

Making an angry noise, Makoto’s eyes flashed with annoyance as he closed them for just a moment. As he reopened them, he returned to stern kindness. “We know you really like fish, Rin-”

“It’s delicious-” Rin blurted, pressing his hand against the oven. Gently taking his hand away from the glass, Makoto nodded.

“I know,” he said, patting Rin’s hand between both of his.

“I know, too,” Haru threw in. Gou elbowed him and he hushed.

Makoto continued. “But this is not how we act. This is bad behavior, Rin. Do you see the mess you made?” Makoto gestured around, pointing to the thrown muffins, the scared chefs, the seasoning thrown everywhere. “You’ve made a big problem for these people. Now they have to clean this up. Is that fair to them, Rin?”

A twinge of guilt set into Rin. He frowned. “But,” Rin said, glancing back at the oven. “Fish, Makoto.  _Fish.”_

“I know, Rin,” Makoto said, nodding as Sousuke tried to press down his impatience. “But just because we like fish, doesn’t mean we cause messes and scare people to get it.”

Sousuke decided to step in now, moving into Rin’s sight. “Makoto’s right, Rin,” Sousuke said. “If you want more fish, you order it, you pay for it. We talked about this.”

Rin remembered. He looked down at his lap. “We can have nice things every once in a while, but we can’t go crazy,” he said. Sousuke nodded.

“Damn right,” Sousuke agreed. “You know better.”

Makoto smiled. “If you need help, you know me and Sousuke are always ready to help you,” Makoto said. “Just a phone call away if you ever need to talk. Kou as well. Sometimes Haru, but he doesn’t answer the phone much. And we don’t listen to Haru.”

Rin looked around at all of them, and they nodded.

“So come on, get up,” Sousuke said, pulling Rin to his feet. Makoto dusted Rin off and wiped a bit of fish off his face. Rin combed a hand through his hair, shifting and looking anywhere but Makoto and Sousuke. He rubbed his arm.

Makoto moved to stand beside Rin, his hand on his back. “Now what do you say to the nice people who let you bake their fish?” he asked.

Rin looked to the chefs, who were more confused now than anything. “I’m sorry I baked all your fish,” Rin said.

“It’s okay,” was the general response. Makoto patted Rin on the back, leading him out of the kitchen.

“There we go,” he said. “Now let’s go clean you up and watch a movie.”

“Can we watch _Finding Nemo?”_ Rin asked. Makoto chuckled.

“If that’s what you want,” Makoto said. Rin’s face lit up with a grin, and he rushed to the bathroom to clean up.

In the meantime, the four remaining worked out some means of paying the restaurant for the disturbance. After, Makoto and Sousuke both had Rin's hands as they left the restaurant _._


End file.
